If market pricing is any guide, it is a near certainty that the Federal Reserve will end its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday with another 0.25 per cent hike in US interest rates. The accompanying statement and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference may exhibit a more hawkish tone. Markets are already on the move. The Fed may wish to keep pace.
When the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) last hiked rates, in December, there were two dissenters. The heads of the Chicago and...

Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Aramco is expected to list public shares on the Saudi domestic stock market in the second half of this year, but a potential international listing could come later, according to sources familiar with the situation.
The initial public offering of Saudi Aramco was expected to be the largest ever share listing. But plans to list on a major foreign stock exchange have been delayed as Aramco grapples with the challenges of taking a portion of the world...

The futures markets were signalling a weaker start for Hong Kong stocks on Tuesday, after US markets dropped overnight because of concerns over increased regulation for large tech companies that triggered a plunge in Facebook shares.
The Hang Seng Index futures spot March contract fell 0.6 per cent or 190 points to 31,203 in the pre-trade session, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index futures dropped 1.13 per cent or 143 points to 12,460.
All three major US indices closed lower own on...

A pioneering US approach to taxation which enables couples to jointly file based on the whole family income, including deductions, is garnering attention in China, although it is not clear that mainland authorities plan to role out a similar scheme any time soon.
Experts say that China will strive for further reform to its tax system to reflect the rising cost of living and ensure competitiveness in the global arena.
In this year’s government work plan, Premier Li Keqiang said China will...

The market value of China’s US$7.8 trillion stock market is likely to grow 6 per cent if policymakers succeed in wooing the country’s unicorns, or start-ups valued at more than US$1 billion, to list their shares on the domestic bourses. The world’s second-largest economy is home to an estimated 120 of these companies with a combined valuation of 3 trillion yuan (US$473 billion), according to brokerage data. Ant Financial Services Group, backed by Alibaba Group Holding, which...

Credit Suisse said it’s ready to replicate its Asia-Pacific business model - where it’s organised as an regional entity with its own balance sheet and division head - in other parts of the world, after the integrated region almost triple its pre-tax income last year.
“People ask why we invest so much in Asia, and my simple answer is this is the region with about 70 per cent of the world population,” the bank’s chief executive Tidjane Thiam said in an interview with...

The concept of a co-sharing economy has become increasingly prevalent, for both physical objects but also for commercial work space.
This growth in the “sharing culture” means we have seen a heavy sprinkling of spectacular interior designs emerge, offering top-end lifestyle amenities such as gyms, shops, cafes and restaurants housed within buildings, to allow higher-quality spaces to be created.
Although this represents a burgeoning business opportunity, given the strong market...

Ninety seconds is a long time for China’s digital-native generation.
For Wang Shuai, 25, that is too long to wait for the advertisements to run out before he can watch his favourite movies and TV dramas on Baidu Inc.’s iQiyi streaming platform. So the Shenzhen resident paid 198 yuan (US$31) for an annual subscription that gives him the ability to skip the ads.
“It is quite cost-efficient, I can watch all the films and TV series on the platform,” Wang said. “Most...

Zhaojin Mining Industry, one of China’s largest gold producers, plans to spend 120 million yuan (US$18.9 million) this year on technology to enable “smart and automated” operations at some of its mines, as part of a long-term strategy to counter rising labour costs.
The Hong Kong-listed company, based in the eastern province of Shandong, aims to make a return on the investment in equipment and software in five years, chairman Weng Zhanbin said in an interview.
“We have...

Embattled mainland Chinese conglomerate HNA Group is stepping up its disposals of assets with plans to sell a clutch of office buildings, hotels and other property to repay debt taken on its recent rapid overseas expansion.
A source with knowledge of the situation said the company was eager to cash out from the properties. It has already sold US$13 billion of assets in recent months as it faced increasing pressure from regulators and creditors.
The assets to be sold include the Shanghai HNA...

Hong Kong’s securities regulator has ordered a company that’s raising capital through an initial coin offering to halt the fundraising and return all tokens to investors, an unprecedented move to rein in the runaway market for cryptocurrencies.
The issuer, Hong Kong-based Black Cell, had been promoting the sale of digital tokens called KROPS to investors through its website. It said the ICO proceeds would be used to fund the development of a mobile application, and holders of the...

Flats rents are dropping in Manhattan, and so is the patience of landlords.
Units that found tenants in February spent an average of just 34 days on the market, the shortest stretch since October 2011, as owners cut rents, offered incentives and did whatever else they could to fill vacancies, according to a report Thursday by appraiser Miller Samuel, and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
“Landlords are not playing around,” said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel....

China Literature, Tencent Holdings’ online publishing spin-off that aims to be “China’s version of Marvel”, posted a 15-fold increase in net profit for its first earnings report after going public in Hong Kong in November.
China Literature makes its revenue mainly from fees readers pay to access popular stories from famous authors contracted to write for its platform, the publication of physical books and intellectual property (IP) rights from adaptation of stories to...

The north-south divide in house prices is beginning to narrow as the booming London property market fizzles out, according to experts who forecast parts of northern England are set to maintain a recent increase in value.
Growth in house prices in the capital is expected to slip below the national average, continuing a slide triggered by the Brexit vote. This will result in further downgrades in parts of the city with the greatest concentrations of luxury flats, the experts said. Meanwhile,...

Hong Kong’s dollar fell to its weakest level against the US dollar in 33 years on Monday as traders look ahead to this week’s Federal Reserve interest rate meeting.
The city’s currency eased to 7.8447 per dollar, its lowest since September 1984. It is down 0.23 per cent so far this month, the worst performer among Asia’s 11 most traded currencies, according to Bloomberg data.
The Hong Kong dollar, pegged at 7.8 against the greenback since 1983, is supposed to move within...

Shares in Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing’s two listed flagship companies fell on Monday after the city’s richest man announced his retirement from his position as chairman, but analysts saw the overall reaction as muted as they expected continuity in leadership.
Conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings fell 1.87 per cent, or HK$1.85, to HK$97.05 while property developer CK Asset Holdings, closed down 0.57 per cent at HK$69.60, after falling as much as 2.5 per cent in morning trade. Shares...

China may struggle to realise its ambitions of leading the world in artificial intelligence (AI), according to an Oxford University study that shows it is still a long way behind the United States.
China is given a score of 17 for its overall capacity for developing technologies in the field, compared with 33 for the US, its main competitor in the global AI race, in the report published by Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute this month.
China has the most internet users. And the Chinese...

Chinese authorities have turned cautious over the expansion of Shanghai’s free-trade zone into a free port along Hong Kong lines, concerned that unfettered flows of goods and money could pose a risk to financial stability.
According to two sources familiar with the government’s thinking, state authorities and the Shanghai municipality have yet to decide on the size and location for the free-trade port – an upgraded version of the free-trade zone that was launched in late 2012...

When an “authoritative person” declared on the front page of Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily in May 2016 that the days of high-speed growth were over in China, few doubted the message came right from the top.
President Xi Jinping’s right-hand man, Liu He, 66, then the director of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs, was widely believed to be the source of the stinging rebuke to then vice-premier Zhang Gaoli’s high-...

Christian Bittar was once among Deutsche Bank AG’s highest-paid traders, a maths whizz who earned a near 90 million-pound (US$126 million) bonus in 2008 alone. Now he is sitting in a UK prison.
The 46-year-old former star banker pleaded guilty in a London court on March 2 to conspiring to rig the interest-rate benchmark known as Euribor.
He is in custody and will be sentenced after a related trial ends this summer. A court lifted reporting restrictions on his plea Thursday.
It’s a...